From Atlantic Cities: Innovation and the Wealth of Cities

Here's something for our look this week at local governments in 2306. It's an analysis about the relationship between the wealth of a city and the degre of innovation that happens there. Presumably the degree of innovation that happens in a city is directly related to the policies established in local areas that promote them. This provides support for a point we keep making about cities within the federal system. They are economic entities primarily.

Atlantic Cities looks at a recent study by the Brookings Institution - a notable think tank - that looks at patent activity in different metropolitan areas and notes their economic benefits:

Patents, as legal records of novel and useful ideas, help drive regional innovation and economic growth. GDP per worker (a measure of productivity) was $16,000 higher in metropolitan areas that developed more patents between 2007 and 2011—such as San Jose; Houston; Los Angeles; Rochester, New York; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Austin, Texas—than the average metropolitan area, compared to places with few patents—like El Paso, Texas; Youngstown, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Fresno, California.

The following charts points out the nature of the patents made in different areas. No surprise abut hat Houston focuses on: